Monday, January 2, 2012

For those of you who like to bake as well as cook......ooh ooh ooh....me!! I do I do.....I came across a recipe for "do it yourself" Vanilla extract. (which I use a ton of) It could not be simpler....

Vodka & Vanilla beans.....pretty easy huh! That's what I though. You just cut your vanilla beans in half ~ put them into a jar ~ add Vodka.....voila!!! It will take a couple of months so make sure you put the date you did it on the bottom with a piece of tape (if I put in on a calendar I know I would lose the calendar!) The only work you have to do is give it a good shake once a day! It will start to turn brown in about a week. Just keep up the shaking & in 2 months you have vanilla extract!

When the 2 months are up just simply remove the vanilla bean & strain really well through cheese cloth to remove all of the seeds.......Guaranteed to never run out!

OMG.....that is all I have to say about this!! I wanted to take on a challenge for a Christmas dessert....what else could there be but a Croquembouch!! From the homemade "cream puffs" to the filling.

My 1st strategy was to get all of the cream puffs done....

So on the 1st day I made all of the cream puffs.....

using just your basic ingredients..... cream puffs were created.....

**I know I had a pic of them but it must of been erased**

On the 2nd day I did 2 things....made the filling &

ran to the store to get the base of the Croquembouch....my foam cone....

Oh look ~

There are some of the cream puffs on the side hanging out....the cone is white but what I did was cover it with 2 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil....

Now to make the salted caramel drizzle.....mmmmm.....like my cream puffs the pic of this has disappeared also (that's what happens when the kids take the camera).....

For the caramel drizzle I just took :

2 1/2 C sugar

1 T Sea salt

2/3 C water

**cooked it until golden brown**

For the filling:

2 to 3 C heavy whipping cream

1/3 C to 2/3 C powdered sugar

so easy!!!

Now onto the fun part.....

With the filled cream puffs I started to build of course from the bottom placing my 1st toothpick about 1" from the bottom & just going from there.....

Dipping 1/2 of the cream puff + about a third of the top & placing it on the toothpick.

**At times the Caramel would cool so I would just reheat it.**

At the end of the Croquembouche I would use the slightly cooled caramel & make caramel "hairs" all over.....I would then take a fork and make the same hairs allllllll over until it completely enveloped the top....